Mother fears missing Danielle is dead

The mother of missing schoolgirl Danielle Jones said today she felt her 15-year-old daughter was no longer alive.

Linda Jones, 41, from East Tilbury, Essex, said: "I don't think she's alive anymore. I really do not think she can be alive any more, we would have heard from her.

"We have to have that little bit of hope but I don't really think she's alive any more."

Speaking to media at Rayleigh police station in Essex Mrs Jones said that as the weeks since Danielle's disappearance on Monday June 18 pass by, the situation was becoming "harder and harder to deal with".

"The amount of time that's gone on makes it hard to believe there's no word, no-one's seen her and that is getting very, very difficult. The longer it goes on the harder it is to cope with.

"The amount of time that's gone on, she can't have disappeared off the face of the earth, if she was able to get in touch she would have done without a doubt. Which is what makes me feel she isn't able to do that.

"We need an answer to it, we can't go on indefinitely in this limbo stage. That's hard to deal with. I don't want to hear the worst but we need an end to it."

She said only the "minutest" part of her believed there would be a positive outcome to the disappearance.

"I do not think realistically I'm very hopeful," she said.

Detectives believe Danielle has been abducted.

Danielle has not been seen since leaving her home to walk to the school bus stop.

Essex Police say there were two positive sightings of the teenager on the morning she disappeared.

Two male schoolfriends said they saw her at about 8am leave home and make a sudden about-turn, believing she was going to the local shop on her way to the bus.

This sighting was reconstructed for BBC Crimewatch.

An adult witness and local resident said they saw Danielle standing on the corner of Bure Road and Coronation Road at about 8am.

Mrs Jones, who has not been able to return to her part-time cleaning job since her daughter disappeared, said she finds mornings the hardest part of each day.

"Because when I wake up it just hits you again that it's another day and it's very distressing just to know you have got to face another day of it."

She said the atmosphere at home with Danielle's father Tony, 41, and sons Mitchell, who was 11 yesterday (Weds), and Ryan, 13, was "very tense".

"Tony finds it hard, the boys are up and down, they do realise what's going on, they do realise what may happen, which is very upsetting."

Mrs Jones described Danielle as a "very caring girl".

"She's just a lovely girl, not one who goes out and about all the time, I always know where she is."

As a toddler Danielle was "very happy" and "lovely to have around" but not very confident, said Mrs Jones.

Her favourite bands are Steps, who carried out a public appeal to Danielle, shortly after her disappearance, and Robbie Williams.

She described support from the community and friends as "absolutely outstanding".

"It's been a bit overwhelming the amount of support we have had actually," she said.

The Jones family cancelled their holiday on the Greek island of Zante, where they had been due to fly to on Monday.

Mrs Jones said they could not believe Danielle had disappeared from the estate in East Tilbury without someone spotting her, or seeing anything suspicious.

She continued: "Somebody must know something. Somebody must be aware of someone around them acting suspiciously, mother, father, sisters, brothers, somebody somewhere can't be sitting back calmly and carrying on normally.

"They must surely be acting in some way suspiciously and if you know anyone who is acting suspiciously, I can't beg you enough to come forward.

"We miss her so much, I need to know what's happened."

Mr Jones runs his own business so has had to return to work, she said.

Mrs Jones said she is "more than happy" with the police investigation and the family has had "a lot of support" from officers.

Mrs Jones said Danielle, who occasionally babysat, hoped to work with nursery age children when she left St Clere's School in Stanford-le-Hope.

Danielle's two closest friends were "devastated" by her disappearance, she said.

Every day she stayed at home and "watches the clock" and now goes shopping outside the village where she has more anonymity.

Mrs Jones said Sara Payne, the mother of eight-year-old Sarah Payne, who was missing for more than two weeks last July before being found dead in West Sussex, has offered support to the Jones family.

"But we are not ready to speak to anyone at the moment, because we are still in that limbo."

The message on Danielle's Nokia mobile phone was today given by Essex Police.

The teenager had the phone with her on the day she disappeared.

It has a purple cover and is now an obsolete model.

The message said: "Hi, you've reached Dan's phone. I can't be bothered to speak at the moment, sorry, leave a message and I'll get back to you."

Danielle's father Tony will at 10am tomorrow visit locations in East Tilbury where there have been positive sightings of his daughter, and where witnesses say they saw a girl fitting her description on the morning she disappeared.

He will be accompanied by senior investigating officer Superintendent Dick Madden, who is temporarily leading the investigation into Danielle's disappearance.

Police said there have been two positive sightings by two schoolboys, and by an adult from their home.

Also another witness has told police they saw a girl fitting her description get into a blue Transit-type van, another said she saw a girl who looked like Danielle arguing with a man in his 30s.